Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
Choosing a RPi model
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Hello,
I’ve decided to try to build a magic mirror and, since I’m still in the planning stage, my biggest doubt is which Raspberry to buy.
On one hand I’d like to get a RPi 5, on the other hand the Raspberry will be on 24/7 and the latest model is power hungry, especially compared to older ones.
Also more power means an higher electrical bill and more heat to dissipate (since it will be in a closed frame that’s obviously a problem both because of the enclosed nature of the installation and because of the small space available so I cannot use big heat sinks or fans).Cost is not an issue since RPi4 costs more or less equal to RPi5
If this helps, I plan to use just a few modules:
- a calendar
- an IR touch screen
- some kind of home assistant module to get some data out of HA
-(optional) a face recognition module, still debating on this tho.
The monitor will be a standard 1920x1080p@60Hz and I don’t plan to do much with MM but these few things (no audio in or out, no AI, no animations).
Which Raspberry would work best in my scenario?
Is RPi 3B+ too old? Is 4B better? Or do I just go with 5?And, last but not least, how much RAM do I actually need?
I don’t want to buy one to find myself in need of an upgrade in 6 month or 1 year.Thank you in advance!
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@Gherry I answered in Reddit
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@Gherry
I chose to go with a server / client configuration as I wanted multiple displays around the house with the same information.Server is an RPi3+ and clients are RPi Zero 2W’s.
I use Dietpi as it has the least amount of overhead for both system. The server was easy to set up on Dietpi, same as a normal setup the RPi OS.
For the client, I can provide a bash script that configures the client. It uses a minimal set of installation packages (under Trixie) in Kiosk mode (no window manager).
I’ve also set cron jobs to turn the display on/off during night. I also have aliases setup to control the client.
All the best,
W. -
@sdetweil thank you!
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@noholdsbard server / client is something I didn’t think about but it’s actually interesting: if I can just use an RPi Zero I would solve a tons of problems (heat and dissipation mostly).
I’ll take a look at that, thank you! -
@noholdsbard a friend of mine had an unused Rpi zero 2W so hopefully this weekend I can run some tests using it as a client: would you mind sharing the bash script / cron jobs so I can take a look?
Thank you in advance!
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@Gherry
Just went through this myself.
I ended up with a Pi 4 4gb.
I decided on it because I already have most things like fans NVME boards, power supplies and cases for the Pi4’s.
The Pi 5s take different hats and power supplies and even cases… Which added substantial cost to the Pi5’s.
